This is an unusual bread. It is a sweet, enriched, white bread made from a thick batter rather than a dough. It is light and delicate and very rich as it includes a generous amount of butter in addition to the eggs, milk, and sugar. Also, it is typically baked in a tube pan rather than a loaf pan or some other more "standard" bread shape. All of this does make for a interesting and very enjoyable bread though! And, if you have a good stand mixer, then it is very quick to mix up and takes very little attention or active time.

Sally Lunn Bread

Slightly adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

Ingredients

• 490-560g all-purpose flour, divided
• 60g sugar
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (or 1/2 Tbsp. instant yeast)
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/2 c. water
• 1/2 c. unsalted butter
• 3 large eggs

Directions

1. Combine ~200g of the flour with the sugar, salt, and yeast.
2. Gently warm the milk, water, and until heated through and butter is soft. (Aim for 40-45°C.)
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. (Or 3-4 minutes by hand.)
4. Mix in the eggs and an additional 140g of flour.
5. Beat on high for another 2 minutes. (Give it somewhat longer if mixing by hand.)
6. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a very thick batter.
7. Cover and let rise at room temperature for ~1 hour.
8. Stir the batter down and beat for 30-60 seconds.
9. Spoon the batter into a well-greased tube pan¹.
10. Cover and set aside to rise at room temperature for ~45 minutes.
11. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F).
12. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for 40-50 minutes.
13. Transfer to wire rack to cool for 5-10 minutes.
14. Turn loaf out of pan and allow to finish cooling on wire rack.

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¹ I don't have a tube pan, so I used a Bundt pan for my Sally Lunn loaf. I also decided to flour the pan after greasing it. I usually just grease bread pans, but a) I'm not usually baking my bread in a Bundt pan and b) my bread normally involves doughs, not batters. Given that (and the fact that Clayton specifically warns about how fragile this loaf is when warm), I opted for flouring in the hopes that this would help the finished loaf release from the pan more easily. And it did, in fact, unmold beautifully! ^Back